Stretton Unfiltered

By Stretton Unfiltered

Welcome to Stretton Unfiltered. The podcast where fashion, purpose, and unapologetic conversation meet. Hosted by Annah and Sami Stretton, this series takes you behind the seams of a legacy brand and ... more

· Business

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FAQs about Stretton Unfiltered:

How many episodes does Stretton Unfiltered have?

The podcast currently has 37 episodes available.

Stretton Unfiltered episodes:

August 26, 2026 Ep 35: She Survived Coercive Control…Then Started Building A Way Out Of It
This is not an easy listen… but it's an important one. In this episode of Stretton Unfiltered, Annah sits down with Krystal, a woman she has walked alongside for over a decade through RAW, to trace the relationship back to where it began… in a safe house, in the middle of active addiction, at the start of what RAW would eventually become.
Krystal shares what it was like being born into crisis, raised without the tools to parent her own children, and caught for years in relationships where she was harmed, and at times, harmful herself.
This is not a story with a neat before and after. It's an honest account of repeating the same pattern over and over… and what it actually took to break it.
Now studying towards a Bachelor of Counselling, Krystal has spent years researching coercive control off her own back, drawing on her own lived experience on both sides of it to build a way of explaining the pattern to other women before it closes around them.
A conversation about survival, accountability, and what it really takes to stop going back.

Connect with us on socials
🎧 Stretton Unfiltered Instagram
🎧 Stretton Unfiltered Facebook
🌸 Annah Stretton TikTok
🌸 Annah Stretton Instagram
🌸 Annah Stretton Facebook
🌸 Join our VIP page
🌸 www.annahstretton.co.nz

SHOP OUR BOOKS 📖
Rag Trade To Mag Trade:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
Grit Before Grace:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
Wise Heart:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚

...more
52min
August 19, 2026 Ep 34: Three Generations of Working Mums: What It Actually Takes
New Zealand's conversation around motherhood and work has suddenly become political again, with paid parental leave now firmly on the election agenda. But beyond the politics, what does making motherhood and work coexist actually look like?
Annah and Sami take the conversation into lived experience, tracing three generations of working motherhood through Vicki, Annah and now Sami. From raising five children in a very different era, to building a company while the children grew up inside it, to Sami navigating River, work and a very different model of parenting today.
They also turn the lens on themselves as employers. Flexibility matters, but in a small business every decision has consequences. What can employers realistically provide, what should government support, and what do working mothers actually need?
Three generations. Very different choices. Plenty they'd do differently. And no perfect answer.
Connect with us on socials
🎧 Stretton Unfiltered Instagram
🎧 Stretton Unfiltered Facebook
🌸 Annah Stretton TikTok
🌸 Annah Stretton Instagram
🌸 Annah Stretton Facebook
🌸 Join our VIP page
🌸 www.annahstretton.co.nz

SHOP OUR BOOKS 📖
Rag Trade To Mag Trade:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
Grit Before Grace:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
Wise Heart:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
...more
51min
August 12, 2026 Ep 33: Whose Problem Is Meth, Really? One Woman’s Story of Abuse, Addiction and the Systems Around Her
There is no shortage of opinions about methamphetamine in New Zealand. Another headline. Another police operation. Another devastated family. Another community asking how things got so bad.
But there's one voice that's almost always missing from that conversation: the people who have actually lived it.
In this episode of Stretton Unfiltered, Annah sits down with Ina, who has been part of the RAW whānau for more than ten years. Through the trust built over a decade, Ina agreed to a rare, honest conversation…not to sensationalise meth, and not to seek sympathy, but to help answer a question New Zealand rarely stops to ask: why does it continue to make sense to the people whose lives have become entwined with it?
Ina takes us back to where it started. At nine years old, she spoke up about abuse within her own family. That betrayal shaped everything that followed…the running away, the drinking, and eventually, methamphetamine.
This isn't a conversation about judgement. It's a conversation about curiosity, and about listening to the people our public conversation so often talks about, but so rarely talks to.
Ina is in recovery, not recovered. She's honest about what that took…a daughter's one request, a chance reconnection, and a decision to keep choosing a different life, every single day.
A conversation about the questions New Zealand keeps asking about meth, and the answers we've been missing because we haven't been listening to the right people.
Connect with us on socials
🎧 Stretton Unfiltered Instagram
🎧 Stretton Unfiltered Facebook
🌸 Annah Stretton TikTok
🌸 Annah Stretton Instagram
🌸 Annah Stretton Facebook
🌸 Join our VIP page
🌸 www.annahstretton.co.nz

SHOP OUR BOOKS 📖
Rag Trade To Mag Trade:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
Grit Before Grace:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
Wise Heart:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
...more
53min
August 05, 2026 Ep 32: He killed a man at 18. But that's not the most interesting part of his story
At 18, Paul Wood killed his drug dealer and was convicted of murder. He spent more than a decade in prison serving a life sentence, where he chose a path that very few thought possible. While incarcerated, he completed an undergraduate degree, a master's degree and began the work that would eventually lead to a doctorate in organisational psychology.
Today, Paul is one of New Zealand's most respected psychologists, an internationally recognised speaker, and the author of three books, including his latest release, Better Never Stops. His work explores one of life's biggest questions: what does it really take for a person to change, and can we continue to grow throughout our lives?
Annah has known Paul for many years through RAW, where he has worked alongside women in prison, mentored participants and challenged them to believe they are more than the worst decision they have ever made. Having watched his journey unfold over many years, this conversation goes well beyond the prison story.Together they explore the realities of rebuilding a life after prison, the burden of lifelong judgement, fatherhood, curiosity, ageing, and why some people continue to learn, evolve and contribute long after society expects them to slow down.
This is a conversation about redemption, responsibility, lifelong growth, and the extraordinary possibility that our most meaningful contribution may still lie ahead.
Connect with us on socials
🎧 Stretton Unfiltered Instagram
🎧 Stretton Unfiltered Facebook
🌸 Annah Stretton TikTok
🌸 Annah Stretton Instagram
🌸 Annah Stretton Facebook
🌸 Join our VIP page
🌸 www.annahstretton.co.nz

SHOP OUR BOOKS 📖
Rag Trade To Mag Trade:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
Grit Before Grace:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
Wise Heart:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
...more
1h 12min
July 29, 2026 Ep 31: The Children New Zealand Chose Not To Believe
For more than thirty years, human rights lawyer Sonja Cooper has stood beside survivors of abuse in state and psychiatric care, people whose stories were ignored for decades.
In this episode of Stretton Unfiltered, Sonja and Annah explore what happens when the very institutions meant to protect children become the source of lifelong trauma.
Together they discuss the fight for justice, the reality of redress, why so many survivors were never believed, and why breaking the cycle matters far more than simply paying compensation.This is a conversation about courage, accountability and what New Zealand still needs to confront.
Connect with us on socials
🎧 Stretton Unfiltered Instagram
🎧 Stretton Unfiltered Facebook
🌸 Annah Stretton TikTok
🌸 Annah Stretton Instagram
🌸 Annah Stretton Facebook
🌸 Join our VIP page
🌸 www.annahstretton.co.nz

SHOP OUR BOOKS 📖
Rag Trade To Mag Trade:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
Grit Before Grace:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
Wise Heart:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
...more
1h 17min
July 27, 2026Ep 30: Still Curious - The Secret To Staying Relevant As You Age
Curiosity doesn't come with an expiry date, but somewhere along the way, a lot of us stop giving ourselves permission to try something new. This is a conversation about staying curious, at any age, and why getting older doesn't mean getting stuck.
In this Stretton Unfiltered short, Annah sit's down with Rose, senior manager of the Wellington Annah Stretton store. Nineteen years into a career spent watching women change their minds about themselves in real time. This conversation is about what happens when we choose curiosity over comfort, at every age and in every part of life.
Rose& Annah share:
Why customers who insist "I don't do that" almost always prove themselves wrong once they actually try
What happened when a group of older women agreed to add colour to their outfits for a photoshoot, and why they left feeling proud
How staying curious about technology, not fearful of it, is helping their generation stay independent instead of relying on someone younger to fix things
Why the changing room is a place where women quietly decide who they still want to be
This is a short, warm conversation about what it costs to stop trying new things, and what it gives back when you do.
Connect with us on socials
🎧 Stretton Unfiltered Instagram
🎧 Stretton Unfiltered Facebook
🌸 Annah Stretton TikTok
🌸 Annah Stretton Instagram
🌸 Annah Stretton Facebook
🌸 Join our VIP page
🌸 www.annahstretton.co.nz

SHOP OUR BOOKS 📖
Rag Trade To Mag Trade:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
Grit Before Grace:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
Wise Heart:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
...more
18min
July 22, 2026Ep 29: She Lost Everything. Twice. And Built It Again.
One phone call changed everything. Cushla Reed's overseas factory had been seized overnight. Her stock, her equipment, her patterns, years of work, all suddenly locked behind someone else's doors.
That single moment is the centre of this conversation, but it's not really the story. The real story is what Cushla lost on the way to building one of New Zealand's most recognised footwear brands, and what she chose to hold onto anyway.
Over more than two decades, Cushla built Minx from a family shoemaking business into a New Zealand export success story, then watched it come apart more than once. She lost a factory overseas. She lost her manufacturing partnership when the same people helping her design started competing against her. She lost the business partnership with her own sister, the person she'd built the brand with from day one. Each time, she rebuilt, and each time she came back with a clearer sense of who she was without the business attached to her name.
This episode covers:
The overnight collapse of her overseas manufacturing operation, and what it actually felt like to lose everything with no warning
Why she and her sister eventually chose to separate the business, and what that decision cost her
The moment a stranger's small act of kindness gave her the push to keep going
How an exchange rate shift nearly wiped out her export business overnight
What it means to protect your identity when your business, your partners and even your family are all part of the same story
This is a conversation about resilience, identity and what's left of you when everything you've built is taken away. If you've ever had to rebuild who you are, not just what you do, this one is for you.
Connect with us on socials
🎧 Stretton Unfiltered Instagram
🎧 Stretton Unfiltered Facebook
🌸 Annah Stretton TikTok
🌸 Annah Stretton Instagram
🌸 Annah Stretton Facebook
🌸 Join our VIP page
🌸 www.annahstretton.co.nz

SHOP OUR BOOKS 📖
Rag Trade To Mag Trade:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
Grit Before Grace:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
Wise Heart:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
...more
1h 24min
July 15, 2026Ep 28: The Decisions That Kept Us in Business for 34 Years
One phone call changed everything.
Annah thought her biggest wholesale customer wanted a catch-up. Instead, they ended the relationship, leaving her with a van full of fabric and a business that suddenly needed a completely new direction.
It wasn't the last time the business would have to reinvent itself.
In this episode, Annah and Sami reflect on the defining decisions that have shaped the company over the past 34 years. Some came from opportunity. Others came from setbacks. All of them changed the business in meaningful ways.
They discuss:
Losing their biggest wholesale customer and rebuilding from the ground up
Why franchising wasn't the right fit
The unexpected success of their swimwear range
The COVID decision that put the brand ahead of short-term sales
What they've learned about knowing when it's time to change
This is an honest conversation about resilience, reinvention, and what it really takes to build a business that lasts.
Connect with us on socials
🎧 Stretton Unfiltered Instagram
🎧 Stretton Unfiltered Facebook
🌸 Annah Stretton TikTok
🌸 Annah Stretton Instagram
🌸 Annah Stretton Facebook
🌸 Join our VIP page
🌸 www.annahstretton.co.nz

SHOP OUR BOOKS 📖
Rag Trade To Mag Trade:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
Grit Before Grace:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
Wise Heart:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
...more
1h 8min
July 08, 2026 Ep: 27 She Built What the Health System Couldn't: The True Colours Story
For more than twenty-two years, Dr Cynthia Ward has quietly stood beside families experiencing every parent's worst fear.
As the founder of True Colours Children's Health Trust, she has built one of New Zealand's most respected children's support organisations, providing counselling, nursing care and education for children living with life-limiting illness and the families who love them. Remarkably, she built it without government funding—through community generosity, unwavering determination and a belief that every child deserves to be heard.
In this deeply moving conversation, Annah Stretton explores the moments that shaped Cynthia's extraordinary journey, from a twelve-year-old boy who changed the way she understood childhood and dying, to walking through a gang guard at the gate to reach a critically ill child, and the story behind the name True Colours, gifted by Tim Finn.
This isn't simply a conversation about illness.
It's about courage, compassion, grief, hope, and what it means to dedicate your life to helping others through their darkest days.

Learn more about the incredible work of True Colours HERE 🌈🦋

Connect with us on socials
🎧 Stretton Unfiltered Instagram
🎧 Stretton Unfiltered Facebook
🌸 Annah Stretton TikTok
🌸 Annah Stretton Instagram
🌸 Annah Stretton Facebook
🌸 Join our VIP page
🌸 www.annahstretton.co.nz

SHOP OUR BOOKS 📖
Rag Trade To Mag Trade:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
Grit Before Grace:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
Wise Heart:
Ebook available here
Order the physical book here 📚
...more
59min
July 08, 2026 She Built What the Health System Couldn't: The True Colours Story *Short*
For more than twenty-two years, Dr Cynthia Ward has quietly stood beside families experiencing every parent's worst fear.
As the founder of True Colours Children's Health Trust, she has built one of New Zealand's most respected children's support organisations, providing counselling, nursing care and education for children living with life-limiting illness and the families who love them.
Remarkably, she built it without government funding through community generosity, unwavering determination and a belief that every child deserves to be heard.
In this deeply moving conversation, Annah and Cynthia explore the moments that shaped Cynthia's extraordinary journey, from a twelve-year-old boy who changed the way she understood childhood and dying, to walking through a gang guard at the gate to reach a critically ill child, and the story behind the name True Colours, gifted by Tim Finn.
Listen to the full story on our latest Stretton Unfiltered episode, out 3pm today
...more
2min

FAQs about Stretton Unfiltered:

How many episodes does Stretton Unfiltered have?

The podcast currently has 37 episodes available.